Pokemon RBY In-game Tiers

Well, since TrollFreak is doing this, I thought I would as well. With a little nudge from Jellicent, I'm working on my first article. I've decided to do what TrollFreak has done and make this a community project. The original thread can be found here.

Have I told you how much I suck at art?

Form:

-Availability: Can you get them early on and are they easy to get?
-Stats: Do they have a usable stat distribution?
-Movepool: Do they have a good movepool that needs little TM support? (By that I mean hard to replace TMs such as ones you get from gyms.)
-Power: Are they strong enough to sweep through enemies without taking too much damage in return?
-Type: Do they have useful STABs and resistances?
-Match-ups: Do they fare well in gym and/or boss battles?

list of Pokemon that need tiered(Move your mouse to reveal the content)list of Pokemon that need tiered (open)list of Pokemon that need tiered (close)

Abra - Top TierAvailability: Early, before second gym.Stats: Above AverageMovepool: Meh, its okay.Power: Having huge base stats in speed and special make Abra a huge threat to everything else. The strongest Psychic type in the game that isn't Mew or Mewtwo when it evolves, this gives it pure type advantage against everything. With Darks and Steels yet to be discovered, and the best move a Ghost can pack is essentially Lick, in addition to all bugs being terrible, being a Psychic type means that it essentially has neutrality on at least everything. Confusion, Psybeam and Psychic are all really powerful in the game and hit everything that isn't a psychic type for neutral damage.Type: Nothing other than Bug- and Ghost-types get Abra for SE damage, and you don't find most of those towards the end of the game.Match-ups:
Misty: Meh. Not too bad if you can get it to Kadabra and teach it some decent moves. However, you can't any, really, until Saffron; it's Psychic at that which, don't get me wrong, is a good move, but about the only good STAB until then.
Erika: Defeat Team Rocket in order to get Psychic from MR. Psychic and Erika should be easy considering she has some Grass / Poison-types.
Koga: Way easy with Psychic.
Blaine: Not too hard, especially with a strong STAB move. If you've kept Water Gun, it could do a bit of damage, but it's not worth the moveslot.
Sabrina: Psychic on Psychic honestly isn't that bad.
Giovanni: Good Psychic STAB = win
Bruno: Does pretty well. Especially if you have a Fighting-type move to help with the Rock-types
Agatha: Honestly one of the easiest to get through with Alakazam
Rival: If you've chosen Squirtle, your rival will have a Venusaur. That doesn't include Yellow Version, however.

Articuno - Top Tier
Availability: Mid-game, comes at a high level of 50.Stats: Amazing Special, awesome bulk, useable Speed.Movepool: Articuno's STAB Blizzard is actually the strongest attack in the game and is 90% accurate. It learns it at level 51, just ONE level up after you catch it. Give it Fly as well. Comes with Ice Beam which is a finisher move to preserve Blizzard's PP. It's also pretty strong.Match-ups:
Giovanni - Sweeps.
Lorelei - Articuno can't really do anything here, sadly.
Bruno - Sweeps.
Agatha - Can manage well, not an outright sweep though.
Lance - Sweeps.
Rival - Easily beats Venusaur or Exeggutor. Slays Rhydon and Pidgeot.Additional Comments: The only problem with Articuno is its Blizzard's low PP

Nidoran(M)/Nidoran(F) - Top TierAvailability: Very Early, right after you first get Pokeballs. Keep in mind that they evolve at level 16 (about the time you reach Mt. Moon), and with the Moon Stone (which you will obtain 1 of at Mt. Moon).Stats: Just enough power to effectively attack from both sides, and enough bulk and speed to be useful against most opponents.Movepool: The nidos have exceptional movepools, performing well throughout the game. In RB they're of little help against Brock and Misty, but in Yellow they get Double Kick, which could be relied on to kill Brock's Rock-types. With early evolution they get access to some powerful Normal-type attacks at Level 23 that will carry them for most of the game (Thrash for Nidoking / Body Slam for Nidoqueen). You can use the Mega Kick or Mega Punch TMs to beat face until then. Nidoqueen and Nidoking can also use Water Gun (obtained at Mt. Moon) to gain great coverage without wasting your Bubblebeam TM (most foes weak to Water in the early game will be destroyed by Water Gun). Both Pokemon also get Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Rock Slide, and Surf. Just be weary that those are all important and valuable TMs outside of Surf. The only unfortunate aspect of their movepools is a lack of useful STAB moves-- neither learns Sludge, and both are incompatible with Dig, which means you have no STAB options at all until you get the Earthquake TM (which comes late game, and you only get 1 of-- it's one of the most valuable TMs). Missing out on Dig is especially unfortunate since it means going into Lt. Surg without a STAB Ground-type attack, which Dugtrio, Golem, and Sandslash can boast. This is of little consequence in RB though, since Raichu can only growl them, but is more annoying in Yellow where Raichu can use Mega Punch. If you're cloning TMs with Missingno, the Nidos are simply incredible.Power: Amazing movepools and decent offensive stats-- pretty self explanatory.Type: Passing through Viridian Forest and up to Mt.Moon, immunity to Poison is fantastic, as is resistance to Poison Sting. After evolving to their final forms, they pick up an additional immunity to Electric moves, protecting them from Paralysis as well. Their resistance to these two forms of status makes them incredibly durable on long treks. Unfortunately, they have many prevalent weaknesses-- the Ground-type being a nuisance against Misty (and later Lorelei), and the Poison's weakness to Psychic is never fun. It's too bad they don't get Sludge as Poison + Ground has incredible coverage. Overall, their typing is good.Match-ups:Brock: Only really useful in Yellow where they get Double Kick.
Misty: Terrible here. Nidorina/Nidorino are too weak, and Nidoqueen/Nidoking would be destroyed by Bubble Beam. Definitely be better to rely on a Grass-type to take on this gym.
Lt. Surge: Excellent, though no STAB Ground-attacks; Nidoking can have problems in Yellow with Raichu's Mega Punch.
Rock Cave: Water Gun + Normal attacks does great.
Erika: They will destroy her if you give them Ice Beam. Immune to Poison Powder is nice, but not an amazing match up without Ice Beam.
Celadon/Lavender Rockets: Water/Ice + Normal coverage hits everything (and destroys Giovanni), and immunity to Poison comes in handy! If you teach them Ice Beam/Rock Slide, you can one-shot all the Golbats.
Koga: 4x resistance to Poison and an immunity to Toxic gives them the edge. Look out for Self Destruct. If you have already gotten Earthquake, they will crush this gym.
Saffron Rockets: Similar to Celadon, but you can grab the Earthquake TM here to one shot all the Magneton / Weezing before they Self Destruct. Earthquake + Surf or Ice Beam will destroy everything Giovanni has.
Sabrina: No... just don't... you'll definitely die.
Blaine: Surf or Earthquake will wreck his team.
Giovanni: Ground-, Water-, and Ice-type attacks wreck this gym.
Lorelei: Ugh... you can hit her Pokemon with super effective Rock Slides (which hit for the same damage as EQ) and Thunderbolts, but honestly the weaknesses to Ice- and Water-type attacks cannot be overcome. Bring one of the many powerful Electric-types instead.
Bruno: The Nidos definitely have the advantage here, with a resistance to Fighting-attacks and the ability to hit everything with powerful Earthquakes. Water/Ice attacks also kill Onix.
Agatha: Earthquake kills everything she has except Golbat, which is no threat. Odds are though, your Nido knows one of Rock Slide / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt so just one shot the Golbat.
Lance: With Ice Beam they can put on a decent fight in RB (Gyara has Hydro Pump though!). In Yellow, Gyarados, the second Dragonair, and Dragonite are all packing Water- and Ice-type attacks that can destroy the Nidos, but the first Dragnair only has Thunderbolt. :)
Rival: Kind of a mixed bag. The Nidos can take on: Pidgeot, Magneton, Jolteon, Rhydon (with Surf), Flareon, Arcanine, Ninetales, Charizard (with Rock Slide), Venusaur (with Ice Beam / Fire Blast), and Exeggcutor. They will have issues with Alakazam, Vaporeon, Cloyster, Blastoise, Gyarados, and Sandslash.Additional Comments: Fast evolution, great moves, and immunity to Poison status and Electric-based paralysis gives them a lot of endurance and utility in game. They evolve fast and appear early. You really can't go wrong with a Nido-- the only real weakness is not STAB Ground-attacks until Earthquake.

Zapdos - Top TierAvailability: Available Mid-game but at a high level of 50.Stats: Awesome Special, great bulk and enough Speed to take care of pretty much everything.Movepool: Thunderbolt and Drill Peck are mixed STAB and are amazing. It comes with the latter but you need to save TM 24 for the former. Fly for a baby HM whore. Thunder Wave for good measure.Match-ups:Giovanni - Pretty poor match up here, unfortunately.
Lorelei - Almost a full sweep except for Jynx, who you should definitely switch out of. Everything else dies to Thunderbolt.
Bruno - Can't hit his 2 Onix, but hits the rest of his team where it hurts with Drill Peck.
Agatha - Thank God for Drill Peck, hitting her frail Gengar and 2 Haunters pretty heavily.
Lance - OHKOes Gyarados, but not a fantastic match-up otherwise.
Rival - Beats Venusaur/Exeggutor with Drill Peck, KOes Gyarados, Blastoise, Pidgeot, and Charizard with Thunderbolt. Can't touch Rhydon, unfortunately.Additional Comments: Comes at a high level with great stats, you can complete its moveset with TM 24 and HM 02 immediately after you catch it.

Bulbasaur - High TierAvailability: Beginning of the Game. Evolves at 16 and 32Stats: 65 base Special is decent for a starter, 100 as Venusaur is great! Sort of slow, however.Movepool: Leech seed is surprisingly useful since its Attack is rather low. It gets Vine Whip before it even evolves, which has low PP but is moderately powerful. The real kicker here is Razor Leaf, which Ivysaur gets at Level 30 and has an effective Base Power of 165 (STAB + 100% critical hit).Typing: Great defensive typing, granting it reliable STAB. It lols at early gym leaders (see below)Match-ups:
Brock - OHKOes everything with Vine Whip
Misty - OHKOes Staryu, gets 2-3HKO on Starmie
Lt. Surge - resists its STAB, whittles away with Vine Whip.
Erika - Not too great here.
Koga - Not too great here either.
Sabrina - Unfortunately, it is weak to its STAB, a rather powerful STAB at that.
Blaine - Same story as Sabrina
Giovanni - OHKOes Rhyhorn, Rhydon, and Dugtrio. It is slower than Dugtrio but is only weak to Dig. Use a Psychic-type against Nidoqueen and Nidoking.
Lorelei - As long as you can outspeed Lapras and Dewgong, you can take sweep her whole team bar Jynx, out of whom you should switch.
Bruno - Murders her 2 Onix; Hitmonlee's and Hitmonchan's Special are absolutely horrid, so Razor Leaf will OHKO. You 2HKO Machamp who only has Submission and Fissure, the latter which will never hit you due to Machamp's Speed.
Agatha - Very poor match-up here. Can't do much to Gengar due to resisting Razor Leaf and its very high Special.
Lance - Terrible match-up here, only hits Gyarados for as good as neutral damage.
Rival - Only beats Rhydon and possibly Gyarados (watch out for Hyper Beam), but is weak to everything else.

Magikarp - High TierAvailability: Early, right before Mt. Moon.Stats: Great (once it evolves).Movepool: Somewhat wide (after it evolves).Power: Once it's a Gyarados, it can plow through the majority of battles due to its sheer stats. Base 125 Attack and Base 100 Special ensure that any attacking options are going to hurt. Also learns Dragon Rage at Lv. 26.Type: Water's always good, and it gains a neutrality to Grass and immunity to Ground when it evolves.Match-ups: As a Magikarp, it loses to everybody. As a Gyarados, you only have to worry about Lt. Surge.

Jolteon - High TierAvailability: Rather early (Erika's gym) and you can evolve it right away, but it's at a low level of 20.Stats: Awesome Special and the highest Speed in the game bar Electrode. It's rather frail, however.Movepool: Thunderbolt + 25% crit rate is just too good to pass up. Doesn't have much else of note, however.Match-ups:
Giovanni - Pretty poor match up here, unfortunately.
Lorelei - Almost a full sweep except for Jynx, who you should definitely switch out of. Everything else dies to Thunderbolt.
Bruno - Can't hit his 2 Onix, but beats the rest of his Pokemon with Thunderbolt.
Agatha - Struggles to take down her two Gengar and Haunter (who like to hit it with annoying status), but easily takes care of Golbat and Arbok.
Lance - OHKOes Gyarados, but not a fantastic match-up otherwise.
Rival - KOes Gyarados, Blastoise, Pidgeot, and Charizard with Thunderbolt. It won't get past Venusaur or Exeggutor and can't touch Rhydon.

Snorlax - High Tier (Arguably Top)Availability: 2 that are available after getting the Pokeflute. Comes at a whopping level 30 (should be about the same or better than your other teammates). You can even use both if you want (1 with Surf, and another with Ice Beam / Blizzard / EQ, lol).Stats: Some of the best stats in the game-- Snorlax is an OU level beast with fantastic HP and ATK. It's speed is bad, and its defensive stats are more than passable with that MONSTER HP. Amnesia can patch up its special... very fast...Movepool: Comes with Headbutt and quickly gets Body Slam (one of the best Normal moves in the game), which also preserves your precious Body Slam TM. It comes with Rest + Amnesia (+ Pokeflute) which is stupid, especially since Body Slam + boosted Surf can destroy everything in the game. Body Slam / Rest / Surf / Amnesia is probably the best in-game set, especially if you aren't cloning TMs. Basically, Snorlax can rape everything without using any TMs. If you are cloning TMs, you can give it Earthquake or Blizzard. Not really important, but it learns Hyper Beam on its own too...Power: It has awesome ATK, and Amnesia pumps up its Special like crazy. It can sweep on either side.Type: Normal is arguably better than Psychic. While it has no resistances (much like Psychic), it also has basically no weaknesses as Fighting attacks are almost non-existent (Fighting Gym/Bruno's Hitmonlee, Bruno's Machamp--that's it). Normal has perfect or near-perfect coverage with so many types in the game-- Rhydon/Golem and Gengar are the only things in all of RBY that hold up to Normal attacks, and Snorlax has access to Surf, Blizzard/Ice Beam, and Earthquake. Yeah, no problemo.Match-ups:Erika: Snorlax laughs at status, Amnesia's through all their attacks, and destroys them with Headbutt/Body Slam. If you gave Snorlax Ice Beam... Ice Beam + Amnesia, lol
Koga: A little bit tough since Sludge hits Snorlax's weak physical side, but you can Amnesia up against something weak like Koffing, Rest of any Poison/damage and sweep with Surf / Ice Beam.
Sabrina: Amnesia to max special against Kadabra / Mr. Mime. Sweep with Ice Beam / Surf / Body Slam. Body Slam from a decent leveled Snorlax OHKO's Alakazam, and comes close even through Reflect. Psychic from Alakazam does laughable damage when Snorlax is at +6 Special. Sucks if Psychic crits you though...
Blaine: Amnesia + Rest + Surf= lol If you went with Earthquake, you'll be getting hit hard by Fire Blasts but you'll OHKO everything while you still have health. If you taught Snorlax Ice Beam / Blizzard, it still does well with Body Slam. Sucks if Arcanine's Fire Blast crits you.
Giovani: Amnesia + Surf + Rest = Sweep
Lorolei: It'll take some effort to break through her Ice-types relying on Body Slam, but she won't be able to touch you without a critical hit once you've amnesia'd up against Dewgong. Sucks if something crits you with Blizzard though...
Bruno: Just watch out for Hitmonlee and Machamp. Surf Snorlax destroys everything else.
Agatha: Gengars can literally do nothing to Snorlax, especially after it Amnesia's up. Amnesia + Surf / Ice Beam for the sweep. If you went with Earthquake, you'll OHKO everything except Golbat, who will die to Body Slams. Agatha is no threat.
Lance: Snorlax won't like repeated Hyper Beams, but it can definitely hold its own (especially if you taught it Ice Beam / Blizzard)
Rival: Pidgeot can't do shit to Snorlax, so feel free to set up Amnesia and sweep his whole team. Pokemon Yellow is harder since Sand Attack and powerful physical attacks from Sandslash are annoying, but Snorlax will still hold its own as a powerful attacker.Additional Comments: Snorlax has the power and movepool to destroy everything. It requires minimum TM investment (none at all if you abuse Surf + Amnesia), and almost no healing item support thanks to Rest + Pokeflute. It can even sweep using Strength + Surf, packing HMs while beating shit up simultaneously. Snorlax's only real problem is being slow... really slow... which means it can really get fucked up by critical hits in RBY. Since Snorlaxe's Special Defense is only 65 in RBY, a crit at the wrong time can be really bad when Amnesia-boosted Snorlax gets OHKO'd by a Psychic, Blizzard or Fire Blast it would have otherwise lol'd at. If you just pack some extra Hyper Potions to help Snorlax out in the face of some unfortunate hax, it can sweep through most enemies.

Lapras - Middle TierAvailability: Late, Silph Co. (Lv. 15)Stats: Good across the board, with massive HP and mediocre Speed.Movepool: It has great level-up and TM/HM learnsets.Power: Because Lapras joins at Lv. 15, it won't be winning any battles on its own. If you can be bothered to grind it, then it actually does quite well.Type: Water typing is great on the last Gym Leaders, and Ice is helpful for Lance. Ice's added weakness are easily managed/uncommon.Match-ups: Lapras's overall good stats and typing mean that it can be very useful in the last fights.
3 of Koga's Pokemon have low Special. Sabrina's normally threatening Psychic-types are easily taken care of due to Lapras's high special bulk and access to Body Slam. Blaine and Giovanni are both demolished due to their type disadvantage. Lorelei can be easily beaten because Lapras can learn Thunderbolt, which is SE on 4 of her Pokemon, and Body Slam, which nails Jynx's pitiful defense. Bruno's Pokemon all are either weak to Surf or have low Special, but keep in mind that Hitmonlee has Hi Jump Kick and Machamp has Submission. Lapras can also learn Psychic, making it useful against Agatha. Unfortunately, its below average speed means that it's vulnerable to Hypnosis. As mentioned before, Lapras's Ice secondary type makes it very useful against Lance, only having to worry about his first Dragonair and Dragonite in Yellow.Additional Comments: Lapras has a ton of potential, as shown above. Its joining time and level, as well as sheer competition from other Water-types who can be obtained earlier in the game, and at more convenient levels, might deter use of Lapras, but don't let that stop you

Pikachu - Mid TierAvailability: Very Early / Default Starter (Yellow Only)Stats: Good speed, decent attack & special, weak HP & defenseMovepool: Limited but sufficient. Gets Thundershock from the start which is a decent attack when STAB and type advantage is factored in. It's the only electricity you'll have access to until after Gym 3 and you'll have to wait even longer than that if you want to save your TM24. In Yellow, it learns Thunderbolt naturally at level 26 which is a huge improvement over Red and Blue (where it learns the OK but not great Swift instead). Thunder Wave is a good team support move that it gets very early. Can learn Flash for those not adept at navigating the darkness of Rock Tunnel and Victory Road. Downside to the movepool is nothing useful against rock/grounds (unless you have Stadium and the time to get it Surf).Power: Not overly powerful but its speed provides a decent amount of CHs and quick shots at opponents. Can usually faint others before it faints itself.Type: STAB Electric comes in handy, especially against the many flying (and later, water) pokemon you run into throughout the game. Think Zubat. The downside is that most caves also feature Geodude. Fortunately, the quick speed allows for easy getaways when you select "run". Only one weakness (Ground) so it doesn't have to face super effective hits very often.Match-ups: Useless against the first gym battle, excellent against the second, struggles in gyms 3, 4 and 8, average against the others. Much more useful against the wild pokemon and average trainer battles.Additional Notes: Pokemon's flagship monster is an interesting choice in these games. On the one hand, electric types are scarce early on, so it's somewhat unique until almost halfway through the gym objective. It can also evolve at will through a Thunderstone and become a Raichu by Gym 4. But there's a catch. In Yellow, Pikachu can't be evolved so the positives of improved learned moves is counteracted by the lack of evolution power. With STAB Thunderbolt and its speed, though, it can run through many pokemon that don't resist its type attack. On the other hand, it's overshadowed by Jolteon and Zapdos or other pokemon that can wield Thunderbolt effectively (Nidoking, for example). The mouse is at least a decent stop gap until you get access to some of those upgrades, though. In general, Pikachu is a great early mon that can be replaced down the road. While it won't hurt you to keep it in your party for the entire game, Pikachu, and later Raichu (RB only), is not powerful enough to be considered a must use.

Tentacool-Mid Tier

-Availability: Right after you get Surf -Stats: 100 Spe and 120 Special are amazing the rest is ok-Movepool: Gets Stab Surf wich you can teach it instantly and can learn Blizzard/Ice Beam via TM, also has access to Wrap+Swords Dance if you want it.-Power: 70 Spe and 100 Special is very nice for a NFE and its level ranges from 5-40 so you can evolve it instantly if you can catch a Lvl 30+ one. It also gets a high powered Stab Move and is very fast as well as having great coverage if you teach it Ice Beam-Type: Water is great, Poison is not-Match-ups:Sabrina: Sabrina eats you alive don't switch it inBlaine: Clean sweepGiovanni: Same as aboveLorelei: Everything except for Jynx resists your attacks and Jynx got a high enough Special to survive a Surf and threaten to paralyse. Clearly a bad match-upBruno: The only thing that survives a Surf is Machamp who can't touch you outside of a NVE SubmissionAgatha: Arbok and Golbat go down easy but you could have some trouble with Gengar and Haunter due to their high Special so watch out hereLance: Without Ice Beam/Blizzard the only thing you can hurt is Aerodactyl otherwise only Gyarados stands in your way of a clean sweepRival: Can handle Pidgeot, Rhydon and Charizard as well as Exeggutor and Venusaur if you teach it Ice BeamAdditional comments: The main drawback is that there are so many other great water types, however in terms of raw power Tentacruel really stands out.

Ekans - Low TierAvailability: Red version only, right after Mt. Moon.Stats: All of Arbok's stats are average or below average. It can't do much damage directly without a super effective hit and it can't take too many hits either. Movepool: Only Ekans and Arbok learn Glare, which while inaccurate is only move that can paralyze every single Pokemon in the game. They also learns other useful moves like Wrap, Dig, Earthquake, Fissure, Strength and Rock Slide. Their main fault is a lack of a good STAB move. Acid is complete garbage. Power: Technically speaking, Arbok can probably beat 90% of the Pokemon you will encounter in the game with Glare + Wrap, but doing so is extremely time consuming and risky due to low accuracy. A super-effective Rock Slide or Dig might do some damage, but Arbok's Attack and Special are just too low to do any significant damage. Type: Pure Poison is a pretty lousy typing. Arbok gains no good STAB and a weakness to Psychic. It also has a Ground-type weakness, but Ground-type moves are rarer than Psychic-type moves. It's resistances aren't anything to write home about either. Match ups: With Dig/Earthquake, Arbok could potentially bring the pain train to Lt. Surge, Koga, Blaine and Agatha, but otherwise Arbok doesn't really excel in any way. Keep it away from Sabrina and Giovanni: they will eat Arbok for breakfast. Again, it can use Glare + Wrap if you have the patience, but otherwise keep Arbok on the sidelines for most of the major fights.Additonal Comments: RBY is tough on pure Poison-types because they lack a good STAB move. Their best move is Sludge, which Arbok can't even learn. If you want a ParaWrap abuser, Arbok is probably your best bet in Red version due to its availability. But Arbok's low stats, mediocre typing and reliance of TMs for good moves make it difficult to place on a team.
Farfetch'd - Low Tier (Top Tier as HM Slave; Bottom tier as a battler)Availability: Somewhat early, as you trade Spearow for it in Vermilion city. Notably, you get it in the same town as Cut.Stats: Crap, don't bother battling with this... just don't... Pidgey is better. Doduo is better. Spearow is probably your best in-game Normal-/Flying-type (and it's not that great at all).Movepool: Cut + Fly... NICE!! Yeah, Farfetch'd's biggest selling point is being the only Pokemon to learn Cut + Fly (except for Charizard). In fact it's the only Pokemon in the game to learn Fly + any other HM, except for Charizard (don't teach Charizard cut... also you're Charmeleon won't evolve until long after you've gotten Fly) and Fly + Flash Zapdos (which is pointless since you're not going to waste Zapdos that way, and you've gotten through Rock Tunnel by the time you get Zados). Cut + Fly is a pretty useful HM combination around the time you get Fly, letting you chop your way into Celadon City Gym, and around the Safari Zone and surrounding routes while also boasting the ability to move freely between Celadon, Lavender, Saffron and Fushia. Farfetch'd is undoubtedly one of the best HM slaves in the game.Power: QuackType: It gets STAB on Cut and Fly... QuackMatch-ups:All: QuackAdditional Comments: Considering you're just going to catch a Spearow for it (which are really easy to find east of Vermilion, and not too hard to find before Mt. Moon), and how much time Farfetch'd's Fly + Cut combo will save you mid-game, it's probably worth taking the time to trade for in Vermilion. Just don't battle with it... EVER; though like all HM slaves, it makes a good sacrifice when you need to make a safe switch-in. However, if you want a fly slave you won't feel embarrassed riding on... go with Pidgeot, Charizard, or Articuno...

Lickitung - Low Tier

Availability: Only one (trade a Slowbro for one at Route 18 fairly late game) in Red/Blue or Cerulean Cave in Yellow.Stats: MARC (that's his name, don't wear it out) has got pretty good HP, but is decidedly below average in every other field, especially speed. On the plus side, it does get an experience boost.Movepool: Terrible level-up learnset full of nothing but Normal attacks (the best of which being Stomp), but has an incredibly wide TM movepool. This walking saliva factory can learn 27 out of 50 TMs and 3 HMs, including such gems as Earthquake, Blizzard, Fire Blast, BubbleBeam, Thunder, and Seismic Toss. It's also the only Normal type besides Farfetch'd to learn Swords Dance, also by TM.Power: Despite potentially gargantuan type coverage depending on how many TMs you want to put into this thing, it's awful offensive stats mean that Swords Dance is pretty much necessary to sweep even semi-effectively.Type: Offensively and defensively speaking, Normal is anything but mundane in Gen I. However, The Pink One faces stiff competition from the likes of Snorlax (who actually ties it in speed) and Tauros, both of which can be obtained at about the same time, and both require far less setup to be useful.Match-ups: Lickitung's battle prowess is completely dependent on which TMs the player is willing to part with in order to make it do anything other than give the opponent a good tongue trashing. In particular:
-- Koga and Agatha: Licky shakes things up with Earthquake, but might end up taking a status first.
-- Sabrina: Swords Dance + any decent STAB attack will make short work of her whole psychic hotline, but your low Special means you can't take it as well as you can dish it out.
-- Blaine: Licktung extinguishes his hot-blooded hench-'mon, but only if it's packing BubbleBeam.
-- Bruno: Earthquake makes his rock types go all to pieces, but unless you're overleveled his Hitmon's could easily beat him to the punch.
-- Lance: Blizzard leaves his whole squad out in the cold, but more than likely you're going to take a few licks yourself from his speedier Dragons.
- Bottom Line: While Lickitung could fill just about any gap your team is missing, it is precisely this unspecialization that unfortunately dooms poor MARC to the low tiers. In nearly every case, there are faster, bulkier, more powerful, or simply better choices.

Machop - Low Tier(Red and Blue) / High Tier(Yellow)Availability: Towards the middle of the Game, Rock Tunnel specifically. In Yellow version, you can receive a Machoke in a trade for a Cubone who immediately evolves into Machamp upon trading.Stats: High Attack, good HP and Defense, below-average Special and low Speed when full evolved; Machoke has a good Attack stat with average or less-than-average stats everywhere else. Since you can recieve a Machamp through a trade in Yellow, it levels up faster and can easily be a few steps ahead of your team, contributing to higher overall stats.Movepool:Starts with Karate Chop, which has a high critical hit ratio. Low Kick and Submission are its only STAB options, neither of which are exceptionally good. Moves like Strength, Rock Slide, Mega Kick, Earthquake and Fissure can be used to fill in the gaps in its level up movepool, which in all honesty isn't that good. DON'T USE FOCUS ENERGY.Power: Unless you are playing Yellow version or somehow find someone who still has a link cable (props if you do!), you are likely going to be using Machoke. It can do decent damage with its 100 base Attack, but you are probably better off with Hitmonlee or Primeape, who deal more damage and are faster. Machamp, on the other hand, can deal amazing amounts of damage and, despite its low Speed, is easily the best fully-evolved Fighting-type in the game.Type: In a game dominated by Normal-types, Machop and its evolutions STAB moves, as mediocre as they are, are incredibly helpful. Just stay away from the almost equally dominant Flying-types and rarer but much more dangerous Psychic-types. Machop can't take a Psychic-type attack to save its life.Match Ups: By the time you get Machop/Machamp, it is almost useless against the remaining major battles. It can be somewhat helpful against Giovanni and Lorelei, but it doesn't excel against any of the Gyms or Elite Four. This line is much more suited for regular trainer battles. Additional Comments: If I didn't emphasize it enough, let me do it again: in Yellow version, you can a Machamp in a trade for a Cubone. Not only do you have one of the most powerful physical attackers in the game, but it gains boosted experience. This is amazing. If you can't evolve Machoke, its just not as good as other Fighting-types you can get and gets reduced to Low Tier status. If you can evolve it, use it and abuse it.

Magmar (Blue only) - Low Tier
Availability: Late, Pokemon Mansion.
Stats: Average
Movepool: Above average
Power: Magmar's Defense is mediocre, and most of the Cinnabar--->Viridian trainers resist and/or are super effective against Fire.
Type: Fire is not a good late-game type, due to the abundance of swimmers.
Match-ups: Surprisingly good against Giovanni and Bruno if you teach it Psychic. Otherwise, nothing special.

Moltres - Bottom TierAvailability: Victory RoadStats: Great Special, above average everything else.Movepool: It has only Peck and Fire Spin when you catch it, meaning that you'll have to give up your TM38 for it to be okay. It learns Agility at Lv. 55, which will allow you to use the infamous Speed-boosting move/Wrap-like move combination.Power: Fire Blast destroys everything in its path, except for resisted hits. Agility/Fire Spin is always good.Type: A secondary Flying type actually makes Moltres less useful than if it was pure Fire. While it gives an immunity to Ground, nobody in the Pokemon League uses that except for Blue's Sandslash in Yellow. Flying also brings weaknesses to Electric and Ice, both of which are common types in the League (especially Ice). Finally, Fire STAB isn't useful this late in the game, and Flying just gives redundant coverage.Match-ups:Lorelei: 4 of Lorelei's Pokemon resist Fire, and all of them have moves that hit Moltres Super-Effectively.
Bruno: His Fighting-types are easily dispatched, and his 2 Onix have Rock Throw as their most powerful moves.
Agatha: She starts out with a Gengar that knows Hypnosis and is faster than Moltres. If you can set up an Agility against it, then the rest of her team should go down easily, so long as you don't get Confused.
Lance: All of his Pokemon resist Fire, and his Gyarados knows Hydro Pump. In Yellow, your chances are even slimmer, as his 2 Dragonair know SE moves, and Dragonite knows Thunder and Blizzard.Additional Comments: While Moltres has good stats, its barren movepool, the difficulty in catching it, its common weaknesses, and poor performance against the Elite Four doom it to the depths of Bottom Tier. Not to mention that by the time you get Moltres, you have Pokemon at similar levels as it, but those have EVs.

Sandshrew (Blue/Yellow only) - Low TierAvailability: Early, Route 4 (Route 3 if you're playing Yellow)Stats: Good physical tank-oriented stats. Low Special and Speed.Movepool: Above average. Notably, it can learn Slash and Swords Dance. Unfortunately, it can't learn Earthquake naturally.Power: It falters against most special attackers. Low speed means that it usually has to take a hit before dishing one out. Lack of notable resistances means that it's generally outclassed by Geodude.Typing: Mono-Ground typing is a double edged sword; on one hand, it's not weak to ground like Geodude is, and it might be able to survive an SE attack if need be; however, Mono-Ground gives it few resistances to types which either aren't common in-game (Electric) or bad attacking types to begin with (Poison).Match-ups: Don't bother with Misty or Erika. Lt. Surge and Koga are obvious wins. Sabrina's Pokemon are not only fast, but they're Psychic-type, which means that Sabrina wins a vast majority of the time. Blaine is doable, but Fire is special, meaning Sandslashwill have a tougher time against him than against Lt. Surge or Koga. 4 of Giovanni's Pokemon (3 if you're playing Yellow) are weak to Ground, and the only special attack his Pokemon knows is Thunder, which Sandslash is immune to.

Bottom Tier:

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Weedle (Red/Blue only) - Bottom TierAvailability: Very early (Viridian Forest)Stats: BADMovepool: Gets exclusive access to Twineedle, but nothing else of note.Power: It does surprisingly well against Team Rocket, due to Bug being SE against Poison. It also does adequately on Cycling Road (when the Koffing don't Selfdestruct) and Celadon Gym. Aside from that, nothing doing.Type: Bug/Poison is okay at best, providing a weakness to Psychic despite knowing actual damaging Bug-type moves.Match-ups: Don't bother with Brock, Lt. Surge, Sabrina, Blaine, or Giovanni. Twineedle and String Shot mean that it's actually useful against Misty. Erika can go well because her entire team is weak to Bug, and 2 of them are x4 weak. While Koga's Pokemon are weak to Bug, all of them are able to take a hit and send another one your way.

Nidoran(M)/Nidoran(F) - Top TierAvailability: Very Early, right after you first get PokeballsStats: Average all-around. Gets the job done well, thoughMovepool: Massive. Learns little by level-up, but they have almost unrivaled coveragePower: Strong enough to plow through most things with the right moveType: Poison-typing is nifty to prevent getting poisoned, which could be irritating. Weak to Psychic, which is unfortunate, but has a nifty Electric immunity once fully evolvedMatch-ups: Weak to STAB moves from Misty and Sabrina's Pokemon, but thanks to their crazy coverage, they have an advantage over almost everything

Edit: May as well

Mew for Top TierAvailability: Early. Requires an easy to perform glitch to be caught. Notably, to get Mew as early as possible, you must first catch an Abra. Details here: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Mew_glitchStats: 100 Base stats across the board is amazingMovepool: Poor level-up movepool, but can learn any TM, so it has a move for almost any situationPower: Hits hard with almost anything it usesType: Psychic-types are broken in RBY, and Mew stands out as the most broken of the group, save for MewtwoMatch-ups: with it's high stats and huge movepool, it has an advantage over just about everything

Magikarp - High TierAvailability: Early, right before Mt. Moon.Stats: Great (once it evolves).Movepool: Somewhat wide (after it evolves).Power: Once it's a Gyarados, it can plow through the majority of battles due to its sheer stats. Base 125 Attack and Base 100 Special ensure that any attacking options are going to hurt. Also learns Dragon Rage at Lv. 26.Type: Water's always good, and it gains a neutrality to Grass and immunity to Ground when it evolves.Match-ups: As a Magikarp, it loses to everybody. As a Gyarados, you only have to worry about Lt. Surge.

Magmar (Blue only) - Low TierAvailability: Late, Pokemon Mansion.Stats: AverageMovepool: Above averagePower: Magmar's Defense is mediocre, and most of the Cinnabar--->Viridian trainers resist and/or are super effective against Fire.Type: Fire is not a good late-game type, due to the abundance of swimmers.Match-ups: Surprisingly good against Giovanni and Bruno if you teach it Psychic. Otherwise, nothing special.

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Alakazam - Top TierAvailability: Early.Stats: Best in the gameMovepool: Very Narrow (but it doesn't matter)Power: Having huge base stats in speed and special make Alakazam a huge threat to everything else. The strongest Psychic type in the game that isn't Mew or Mewtwo, this gives it pure type advantage against everything. With Darks and Steels yet to be discovered, and the best move a Ghost can pack is essentially Lick, in addition to all bugs being terrible, being a Psychic type means that it essentially has neutrality on at least everything. Confusion, Psybeam and Psychic are all really powerful in the game and hit everything that isn't a psychic type for neutral damage. In-game, Alakazam can get away with running both Psybeam and Psychic (to compensate for low PP). In addition, Alakazam's great speed means it will be scoring critical hits almost all the time, due to the critical hit mechanics in RBY basing it on speed. Alakazam will always hit first, and will always hit hard. Type: Psychic types are godly in this game, so overpowered that they introduced 2 new types in GSC just to limit it. The other two types that supposedly beat psychics, bug and ghost, have a neutrality to their attacks and no significant moves to retaliate against them (Pin Missile and Lick, lol).Match-ups: Beats everything, even other psychics. Additional Comments: Despite Abra being somewhat of a difficult catch, due to teleport, his catch rate isn't too high to make it impossible. In addition, you can buy him cheaply at the game corner, in which he will evolve after 1 level. All it takes is a single trade to get from Kadabra to Alakazam, and then you have the most broken non-legendary in RBY.

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Zapdos - Top TierAvailability: Available Mid-game but at a high level of 50.Stats: Awesome Special, great bulk and enough Speed to take care of pretty much everything.Movepool: Thunderbolt and Drill Peck are mixed STAB and are amazing. It comes with the latter but you need to save TM 24 for the former. Fly for a baby HM whore. Thunder Wave for good measure.Match-ups:Giovanni - Pretty poor match up here, unfortunately.
Lorelei - Almost a full sweep except for Jynx, who you should definitely switch out of. Everything else dies to Thunderbolt.
Bruno - Can't hit his 2 Onix, but hits the rest of his team where it hurts with Drill Peck.
Agatha - Thank God for Drill Peck, hitting her frail Gengar and 2 Haunters pretty heavily.
Lance - OHKOes Gyarados, but not a fantastic match-up otherwise.
Rival - Beats Venusaur/Exeggutor with Drill Peck, KOes Gyarados, Blastoise, Pidgeot, and Charizard with Thunderbolt. Can't touch Rhydon, unfortunately.Additional Comments: Comes at a high level with great stats, you can complete its moveset with TM 24 and HM 02 immediately after you catch it.

Articuno - Top Tier
Availability: Mid-game, comes at a high level of 50.Stats: Amazing Special, awesome bulk, useable Speed.Movepool: Articuno's STAB Blizzard is actually the strongest attack in the game and is 90% accurate. It learns it at level 51, just ONE level up after you catch it. Give it Fly as well. Comes with Ice Beam which is a finisher move to preserve Blizzard's PP. It's also pretty strong.Match-ups:
Giovanni - Sweeps.
Lorelei - Articuno can't really do anything here, sadly.
Bruno - Sweeps.
Agatha - Can manage well, not an outright sweep though.
Lance - Sweeps.
Rival - Easily beats Venusaur or Exeggutor. Slays Rhydon and Pidgeot.Additional Comments: The only problem with Articuno is its Blizzard's low PP, but honestly you should be cloning PP Ups and Elixirs with the MissingNo. glitch anyway.

Magikarp - High TierAvailability: Early, right before Mt. Moon.Stats: Great (once it evolves).Movepool: Somewhat wide (after it evolves).Power: Once it's a Gyarados, it can plow through the majority of battles due to its sheer stats. Base 125 Attack and Base 100 Special ensure that any attacking options are going to hurt. Also learns Dragon Rage at Lv. 26.Type: Water's always good, and it gains a neutrality to Grass and immunity to Ground when it evolves.Match-ups: As a Magikarp, it loses to everybody. As a Gyarados, you only have to worry about Lt. Surge.

Alakazam - Top TierAvailability: Early.Stats: Best in the gameMovepool: Very Narrow (but it doesn't matter)Power: Having huge base stats in speed and special make Alakazam a huge threat to everything else. The strongest Psychic type in the game that isn't Mew or Mewtwo, this gives it pure type advantage against everything. With Darks and Steels yet to be discovered, and the best move a Ghost can pack is essentially Lick, in addition to all bugs being terrible, being a Psychic type means that it essentially has neutrality on at least everything. Confusion, Psybeam and Psychic are all really powerful in the game and hit everything that isn't a psychic type for neutral damage. In-game, Alakazam can get away with running both Psybeam and Psychic (to compensate for low PP). In addition, Alakazam's great speed means it will be scoring critical hits almost all the time, due to the critical hit mechanics in RBY basing it on speed. Alakazam will always hit first, and will always hit hard. Type: Psychic types are godly in this game, so overpowered that they introduced 2 new types in GSC just to limit it. The other two types that supposedly beat psychics, bug and ghost, have a neutrality to their attacks and no significant moves to retaliate against them (Pin Missile and Lick, lol).Match-ups: Beats everything, even other psychics. Additional Comments: Despite Abra being somewhat of a difficult catch, due to teleport, his catch rate isn't too high to make it impossible. In addition, you can buy him cheaply at the game corner, in which he will evolve after 1 level. All it takes is a single trade to get from Kadabra to Alakazam, and then you have the most broken non-legendary in RBY.

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I'm honestly debating whether or not to put Magikarp in the High Tier. Yeah, he's good as a Gyarados, but training him takes away some points.

Sandshrew (Blue/Yellow only) - Low TierAvailability: Early, Route 4 (Route 3 if you're playing Yellow)Stats: Good physical tank-oriented stats. Low Special and Speed.Movepool: Above average. Notably, it can learn Slash and Swords Dance. Unfortunately, it can't learn Earthquake naturally.Power: It falters against most special attackers. Low speed means that it usually has to take a hit before dishing one out. Lack of notable resistances means that it's generally outclassed by Geodude.Typing: Mono-Ground typing is a double edged sword; on one hand, it's not weak to ground like Geodude is, and it might be able to survive an SE attack if need be; however, Mono-Ground gives it few resistances to types which either aren't common in-game (Electric) or bad attacking types to begin with (Poison).Match-ups: Don't bother with Misty or Erika. Lt. Surge and Koga are obvious wins. Sabrina's Pokemon are not only fast, but they're Psychic-type, which means that Sabrina wins a vast majority of the time. Blaine is doable, but Fire is special, meaning Sandslashwill have a tougher time against him than against Lt. Surge or Koga. 4 of Giovanni's Pokemon (3 if you're playing Yellow) are weak to Ground, and the only special attack his Pokemon knows is Thunder, which Sandslash is immune to.

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Bulbasaur - High TierAvailability: Beginning of the Game. Evolves at 16 and 32Stats: 65 base Special is decent for a starter, 100 as Venusaur is great! Sort of slow, however.Movepool: Leech seed is surprisingly useful since its Attack is rather low. It gets Vine Whip before it even evolves, which has low PP but is moderately powerful. The real kicker here is Razor Leaf, which Ivysaur gets at Level 30 and has an effective Base Power of 165 (STAB + 100% critical hit).Typing: Great defensive typing, granting it reliable STAB. It lols at early gym leaders (see below)Match-ups:
Brock - OHKOes everything with Vine Whip
Misty - OHKOes Staryu, gets 2-3HKO on Starmie
Lt. Surge - resists its STAB, whittles away with Vine Whip.
Erika - Not too great here.
Koga - Not too great here either.
Sabrina - Unfortunately, it is weak to its STAB, a rather powerful STAB at that.
Blaine - Same story as Sabrina
Giovanni - OHKOes Rhyhorn, Rhydon, and Dugtrio. It is slower than Dugtrio but is only weak to Dig. Use a Psychic-type against Nidoqueen and Nidoking.
Lorelei - As long as you can outspeed Lapras and Dewgong, you can take sweep her whole team bar Jynx, out of whom you should switch.
Bruno - Murders her 2 Onix; Hitmonlee's and Hitmonchan's Special are absolutely horrid, so Razor Leaf will OHKO. You 2HKO Machamp who only has Submission and Fissure, the latter which will never hit you due to Machamp's Speed.
Agatha - Very poor match-up here. Can't do much to Gengar due to resisting Razor Leaf and its very high Special.
Lance - Terrible match-up here, only hits Gyarados for as good as neutral damage.
Rival - Only beats Rhydon and possibly Gyarados (watch out for Hyper Beam), but is weak to everything else.

Jolteon - High TierAvailability: Rather early (Erika's gym) and you can evolve it right away, but it's at a low level of 20.Stats: Awesome Special and the highest Speed in the game bar Electrode. It's rather frail, however.Movepool: Thunderbolt + 25% crit rate is just too good to pass up. Doesn't have much else of note, however.Match-ups:
Giovanni - Pretty poor match up here, unfortunately.
Lorelei - Almost a full sweep except for Jynx, who you should definitely switch out of. Everything else dies to Thunderbolt.
Bruno - Can't hit his 2 Onix, but beats the rest of his Pokemon with Thunderbolt.
Agatha - Struggles to take down her two Gengar and Haunter (who like to hit it with annoying status), but easily takes care of Golbat and Arbok.
Lance - OHKOes Gyarados, but not a fantastic match-up otherwise.
Rival - KOes Gyarados, Blastoise, Pidgeot, and Charizard with Thunderbolt. It won't get past Venusaur or Exeggutor and can't touch Rhydon.

(notice how I c/p'd most of Jolteon from Zapdos, as they perform many of the same roles)

I've never done one of these before but I always liked using this pokemon back in the day.

Pikachu - Mid TierAvailability: Very Early / Default Starter (Yellow Only)Stats: Good speed, decent attack & special, weak HP & defenseMovepool: Limited but sufficient. Gets Thundershock from the start which is a decent attack when STAB and type advantage is factored in. It's the only electricity you'll have access to until after Gym 3 and you'll have to wait even longer than that if you want to save your TM24. In Yellow, it learns Thunderbolt naturally at level 26 which is a huge improvement over Red and Blue (where it learns the OK but not great Swift instead). Thunder Wave is a good team support move that it gets very early. Can learn Flash for those not adept at navigating the darkness of Rock Tunnel and Victory Road. Downside to the movepool is nothing useful against rock/grounds (unless you have Stadium and the time to get it Surf).Power: Not overly powerful but its speed provides a decent amount of CHs and quick shots at opponents. Can usually faint others before it faints itself.Type: STAB Electric comes in handy, especially against the many flying (and later, water) pokemon you run into throughout the game. Think Zubat. The downside is that most caves also feature Geodude. Fortunately, the quick speed allows for easy getaways when you select "run". Only one weakness (Ground) so it doesn't have to face super effective hits very often.Match-ups: Useless against the first gym battle, excellent against the second, struggles in gyms 3, 4 and 8, average against the others. Much more useful against the wild pokemon and average trainer battles.Additional Notes: Pokemon's flagship monster is an interesting choice in these games. On the one hand, electric types are scarce early on, so it's somewhat unique until almost halfway through the gym objective. It can also evolve at will through a Thunderstone and become a Raichu by Gym 4. But there's a catch. In Yellow, Pikachu can't be evolved so the positives of improved learned moves is counteracted by the lack of evolution power. With STAB Thunderbolt and its speed, though, it can run through many pokemon that don't resist its type attack. On the other hand, it's overshadowed by Jolteon and Zapdos or other pokemon that can wield Thunderbolt effectively (Nidoking, for example). The mouse is at least a decent stop gap until you get access to some of those upgrades, though. In general, Pikachu is a great early mon that can be replaced down the road. While it won't hurt you to keep it in your party for the entire game, Pikachu, and later Raichu (RB only), is not powerful enough to be considered a must use.

-Availability: Only one (trade a Slowbro for one at Route 18 fairly late game) in Red/Blue or Cerulean Cave in Yellow (post-game, thus making it irrelevant).
-Stats: MARC (that's his name, don't wear it out) has got pretty good HP, but is decidedly below average in every other field, especially speed. On the plus side, it does get an experience boost.
-Movepool: Terrible level-up learnset full of nothing but Normal attacks (the best of which being Stomp), but has an incredibly wide TM movepool. This walking saliva factory can learn 27 out of 50 TMs and 3 HMs, including such gems as Earthquake, Blizzard, Fire Blast, BubbleBeam, Thunder, and Seismic Toss. It's also the only Normal type besides Farfetch'd to learn Swords Dance, also by TM.
-Power: Despite potentially gargantuan type coverage depending on how many TMs you want to put into this thing, it's awful offensive stats mean that Swords Dance is pretty much necessary to sweep even semi-effectively.
-Type: Offensively and defensively speaking, Normal is anything but mundane in Gen I. However, The Pink One faces stiff competition from the likes of Snorlax (who actually ties it in speed) and Tauros, both of which can be obtained at about the same time, and both require far less setup to be useful.
-Match-ups: Lickitung's battle prowess is completely dependent on which TMs the player is willing to part with in order to make it do anything other than give the opponent a good tongue trashing. In particular:
-- Koga and Agatha: Licky shakes things up with Earthquake, but might end up taking a status first.
-- Sabrina: Swords Dance + any decent STAB attack will make short work of her whole psychic hotline, but your low Special means you can't take it as well as you can dish it out.
-- Blaine: Licktung extinguishes his hot-blooded hench-'mon, but only if it's packing BubbleBeam.
-- Bruno: Earthquake makes his rock types go all to pieces, but unless you're overleveled his Hitmon's could easily beat him to the punch.
-- Lance: Blizzard leaves his whole squad out in the cold, but more than likely you're going to take a few licks yourself from his speedier Dragons.
- Bottom Line: While Lickitung could fill just about any gap your team is missing, it is precisely this unspecialization that unfortunately dooms poor MARC to the low tiers. In nearly every case, there are faster, bulkier, more powerful, or simply better choices.

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I was almost going to put Licky in Mid Tier based on coverage alone, but the cons seemed to outweigh the pros too much in my mind. It doesn't really have the stats to pull it off well, but then there's the issue of overleveling which kinda renders it irrelevant. Then again, the same could be said of any 'mon in this game. If anyone feels like I didn't give Tootsiepop's Worst Nightmare a fair shake, go ahead and lemme know.

Lapras - Low TierAvailability: Late, Silph Co. (Lv. 15)Stats: Good across the board, with massive HP and mediocre Speed.Movepool: It has great level-up and TM/HM learnsets.Power: Because Lapras joins at Lv. 15, it won't be winning any battles on its own. If you can be bothered to grind it, then it actually does quite well.Type: Water typing is great on the last Gym Leaders, and Ice is helpful for Lance. Ice's added weakness are easily managed/uncommon.Match-ups: Lapras's overall good stats and typing mean that it can be very useful in the last fights.
3 of Koga's Pokemon have low Special. Sabrina's normally threatening Psychic-types are easily taken care of due to Lapras's high special bulk and access to Body Slam. Blaine and Giovanni are both demolished due to their type disadvantage. Lorelei can be easily beaten because Lapras can learn Thunderbolt, which is SE on 4 of her Pokemon, and Body Slam, which nails Jynx's pitiful defense. Bruno's Pokemon all are either weak to Surf or have low Special, but keep in mind that Hitmonlee has Hi Jump Kick and Machamp has Submission. Lapras can also learn Psychic, making it useful against Agatha. Unfortunately, its below average speed means that it's vulnerable to Hypnosis. As mentioned before, Lapras's Ice secondary type makes it very useful against Lance, only having to worry about his first Dragonair and Dragonite in Yellow.Additional Comments: Lapras has a ton of potential, as shown above. The main reason why it's Low is because of its joining time and level, as well as sheer competition from other Water-types, who can be obtained earlier in the game, and at more convenient levels. It is a useful HM Slave though, because it can learn Surf and Strength and is given to you rather than caught.

Weedle (Red/Blue only) - Bottom TierAvailability: Very early (Viridian Forest)Stats: BADMovepool: Gets exclusive access to Twineedle, but nothing else of note.Power: It does surprisingly well against Team Rocket, due to Bug being SE against Poison. It also does adequately on Cycling Road (when the Koffing don't Selfdestruct) and Celadon Gym. Aside from that, nothing doing.Type: Bug/Poison is okay at best, providing a weakness to Psychic despite knowing actual damaging Bug-type moves.Match-ups: Don't bother with Brock, Lt. Surge, Sabrina, Blaine, or Giovanni. Twineedle and String Shot mean that it's actually useful against Misty. Erika can go well because her entire team is weak to Bug, and 2 of them are x4 weak. While Koga's Pokemon are weak to Bug, all of them are able to take a hit and send another one your way.

Availability: Practically everywhere. Rattata and its evolution can be found as early as Route 1 to as late as Route 18.Stats: While incredibly frail, it does have pretty good speed and attack.Movepool: The little cheese scarfer has a pretty limited but fairly unique level-up move set. It learns Hyper Fang, an 80-base power STAB with a chance to flinch, as early as level 14, which demolishes opponents up to mid-game. It's TM movepool provides it with respectable coverage, including such moves as Hyper Beam, Blizzard, Thunderbolt, BubbleBeam, and Dig.Power: Rattata's quick feet and raw power give it sufficient means to outspeed and overtake many slower Pokemon throughout your quest. With Super Fang in its arsenal, it has the ability to decrease the health of any opponent in the game by at least 50%, regardless of defense and typing, including Ghosts. While its power is commendable in the beginning, it becomes outmatched by stronger and bulkier Normal types such as Dodrio and Tauros near the end.Type: While Rattata's bulk is pretty much non-existent, its beneficial typing means that its only truly at a disadvantage against Fighting types.Match-ups: With few exceptions, our big-toothed bad boy has little difficulty dealing with trainers at the start of the player's journey, and can even hold its own fairly well in the later stages assuming its level is kept up to snuff. Rock types are the biggest hindrance unless you teach it BubbleBeam after the 2nd gym, and although it can cut Ghosts down to size with Super Fang, it requires at least one non-Normal type TM to finish them off.
-- Brock: Poor Rattata can't even put a dent in his rock-solid defenses at this stage.
-- Misty: Hyper Fang is still it's only reliable move at this point, but it has her posse seeing stars assuming its level is high enough to outspeed them.
-- Lt.Surge: All this rat-on-rat violence has gotta stop. Rattata is once against caught in a speed battle, but has an advantage in power.
-- Erica: Assuming you don't take a status first, Rattata can power on through.
-- Sabrina: A rare instance where Rattata is up against something faster and frailer than itself. Your level is going to make all the difference.
-- Blaine: Rattata dominates here, but only if you gave it BubbleBeam.
-- Giovanni: BubbleBeam to the rescue once again, otherwise his rock types will give you Brock flashbacks.
-- Lorelei: Speed and power is all you got.
-- Bruno: Blizzard or Bubblebeam are manditory for half his crew, but his prize fighter will send you to the mat regardless if your level isn't high enough.
-- Agatha: Super Fang puts the fear in her ghosts, but you'll need something else to back it up before you get a status.
-- Lance: If you've got it, Blizzard can do some big damage, but even then you'll need the level advantage to get your first move.Bottom Line: Despite the stigma of being a "first route" 'mon, Rattata is one of the most effective early game sweepers against anything barring Rock-types, which are unfortunately plentiful. However, it's usefulness begins to taper off as the game goes on, with better choices being made available around the 5th or 6th gyms.

What level does Raticate need to be to OHKO Lance's Dragonair? I can understand that it can beat Dragonite due to 4x weakness but I'm a little suspicious about Dragonair.

Edit: not to mention Gyarados, who has roughly the same defenses as Dragonite but without the 4 weakness. I'm willing to bet it OHKOes Raticate with Hyper Beam.

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I didn't necessarily mean it could OHKO them, but at a reasonable level I think a Blizzard could at least get them within knock-out range of a Quick Attack. But it all comes down to a tendency I have to over level for these kind of things so I'm sure that's not a normal result.

As for Gyara, yeah, he's not going down to anything cheese breath can throw at him. Probably shouldn't have said his "whole team".

If you're going to allow glitch use, the tiering exercise becomes entirely pointless, because all Pokemon become equally capable of OHKOing things as soon as you gain the ability to dupe Rare Candies, hence making Articuno one of the worst Pokemon in the game due to the fact that it has zero availability prior to that point. Similarly, any remarks about "duping elixers" are irrelevant to tiering discussion, because I don't care about duping PP items to get more mileage out of Blizzard when my level 100 Blastoise is OHKOing everything with Surf and Ice Beam. Of course, I don't even care about Rare Candy duping when I can just sweep the entire game with the level 177 Mewtwo I caught in the Seafoam Islands.

Anyway, the same techinique used to catch Mew can also be used to catch something like Exeggcute or Lapras early on and I doubt you want to go to the trouble of tiering those according to glitch availability as well.

Secondly, there is no way that a Pokemon like Articuno, which doesn't become available until after Surf and only comes with what is essentially a single STAB ranks above a Pokemon like Bulbasaur that is available for the entire game, has type advantage against the first three gyms, evolves at level 32, and at level 30 gets Razor Leaf which is effectively a 110 base power STAB with 25 PP. I also fail to see how Venusaur is "slow" when its base speed is only 5 points lower than Articuno's.

Magikarp is definitely no higher than mid tier, evolving it requires a ridiculous amount of effort and that high attack stat doesn't do it very many favors when the only physical attacks itt learns naturally are Bite (level 20) and Hyper Beam (level 52), the Body Slam TM is an item in high-demand and the fact that Strength is one of your best attacks is just insulting. The thing also has the slowest growth rate in the game, which only exascerbates the problem of needing to raise it to level 20 before it becomes anything more than useless. In fact, in this article Magikarp was given as an example of a Pokemon that might be a mid-tier Pokemon in Pokemon yellow after it was buffed substantially.

"In-game" means "in-game." No Gengar, no Golem, no level 100 Mewtwo traded over from your completed save file, and no Alakazam.

I think a more efficient way to crowd-source this article writing would be to draft a tier list (preferably with the help of Fire Emblem veterans) before actually doing the bulk of the writing.

-Availability: Early game, at the Viridian Forest
-Stats: Decent Special and Speed stats, below-average everything else
-Movepool: At first, it has a limited movepool until it reaches level 10, where it evolves into Butterfree. However, it doesn't have the greatest movepool nor STAB moves, but its movepool is quite decent. Learns Confusion at level 10/12, which can hit Brock for neutral. However, at level 15/17, learns the great Sleep Powder, and combined with its decent speed, will put opponents to sleep. Nothing else is worthwhile until Butterfree can be though Psybeam at level 32/34, Mega Drain or Psychic. -Power: At first Caterpie is weak, it becomes stronger as it evolves. With Confusion and Butterfree's decent Special stat, will do good amounts of damage. After it learns Sleep Powder, Butterfree can put the opponent to sleep and barrage them with a variety of attacks while they cannot do anything. However, there are stronger users of Sleep Powder, but Butterfree is excellent in abusing it early game due to its availability.
-Type: While Rattata's bulk is pretty much non-existent, its beneficial typing means that its only truly at a disadvantage against Fighting types.
Its Bug / Flying type is pretty much a disadvantage to Butterfree, having no STAB moves for it and having weaknesses to common types such as Fire, Electric and Ice.
-Match-ups: With few exceptions, our big-toothed bad boy has little difficulty dealing with trainers at the start of the player's journey, and can even hold its own fairly well in the later stages assuming its level is kept up to snuff. Rock types are the biggest hindrance unless you teach it BubbleBeam after the 2nd gym, and although it can cut Ghosts down to size with Super Fang, it requires at least one non-Normal type TM to finish them off.
Caterpie will have a hard time holding its own until it evolves, in which it can deal a decent amount of damage against most Pokemon.
-- Brock: As Butterfree, it can take out Brock's team due to his Pokemon's lack of Rock-type moves. In addition, Butterfree can exploit their low Special stat so it can hit them with Confusion.
-- Misty: Sleep Powder abuse and Confusion will help against her Water-types, but Butterfree may have trouble against Starmie due to its resistance against Psychic-types.
-- Lt.Surge: Assuming Butterfree is kept up to level, may or may not have trouble if it can get the Sleep Powder before it gets hit with a Thunderbolt. If not, Butterfree can have problems.
-- Erica: Grass-types won't be doing too much due to Butterfree's typing. Also, since most Grass-types are part Poison, Butterfree can clean up here with Sleep Powder abuse and Confusion.--Koga: Sleep Powder abuse and Psychic-type moves will work, but the stray Poison-Type attacks may be annoying.
-- Sabrina: Butterfree may have trouble here since it can get outsped as well as Psychic-type moves not being great here. However, Sleep Powder abuse can work out.
-- Blaine: Same as Lt. Surge in that if you can use Sleep Powder before the Fire-type attacks, then you should be alright. Otherwise, Butterfree is going to have problems.
-- Giovanni: Sleep Powder and Mega Drain.
-- Lorelei: Sleep Powder and Mega Drain, but Jynx can cause problems.
-- Bruno: Sleep Powder, Mega Drain and Psychic. 4x resist to Fighting is great too. However, be cautious of stray Rock-type attacks.
-- Agatha: Sleep Powder and Psychic, but the faster Gengar can cause problems as well.
-- Lance: Butterfree will get overpowered in this battle unless Sleep Powder is used first.
- Bottom Line: It may look weak at first, but when it evolves to Butterfree, it is pretty decent. Decent strength and speed, early access to Sleep Powder and decent movepool, Butterfree can be a force to be reckoned with. Pretty good for the earlygame standard Bug-type Pokemon.

Paras - Bottom TierAvailability: Early, Mt. MoonStats: Good Attack, below average Defenses, awful SpeedMovepool: Spore, Leech Life, Slash, and Growth are the only notable level-up moves. Ability to learn Cut and Flash means it can be a good HM Slave for Rock Tunnel. Also has access to Swords Dance, but that's about it. Another notable thing is that Paras can learn no damaging Grass-type moves by level-up. Also keep in mind that it doesn't learn Spore until around Lv. 30Power: Poor Speed, mediocre defenses, and 6 weaknesses all mean that Paras/Parasect won't exactly be useful in battle. It also can't do anything to Hikers until you get Mega Drain, which is after Rock Tunnel.Type: It has 6 weaknesses, 3 of them being x4 weaknesses, but it's still salvagable, due to being SE against Water and Poison, 2 common types.Match-ups: Paras actually does well against Misty, due to Stun Spore, Leech Life, and a resistance to Water. Same for Lt. Surge, but keep in mind that Voltorb knows Sonicboom (Red/Blue) and Raichu knows Mega Punch and Mega Kick in Yellow. Erika's another similar story. Koga's Pokemon can take a Leech life and Selfdestruct in your face. Sabrina's Pokemon are weak to Bug, but their high critical hit rate and Parasect's modest at best defenses mean that you shouldn't be relying on it. Blaine will turn Parasect into mushroom pizza if you use it against him. All of Giovanni's Pokemon (minus Persian in Yellow) are weak to either Grass or Bug.Additional Comments: While Parasect is useful for the first few gym battles, its poor stats, 6 weaknesses, and overall low BP of its moves mean that you're better off using something else.

Bellsprout (Blue/Yellow only) - Mid TierAvailability: Early, Route 24Stats: Good Attack and Special, but unappealing Defense and Speed.Movepool: Gets Wrap soon after you catch it, and Sleep Powder and Stun Spore at levels 18 and 21, respectively. It also has access to Razor Leaf, albeit at level 38, and Swords Dance via TM03, but with no good moves to abuse it.Power: Wrap is good and all, but it's still weak and reliant on being faster than your opponent, so you'll be relying on the commonly resisted Vine Whip for your fights most of the time.Type: Grass/Poison dual typing means you get one of the worst offensive STAB combinations, but it's still good for the Hikers and Swimmers that seem to be everywhere early/late game.Match-ups: Misty is easily taken care of because of Wrap's mechanics and Bellsprout's STAB being Super Effective. Lt. Surge is also handily dealt with because Bellsprout/Weepinbell should know Stun Spore by then. The Stun Spore/Wrap strategy will also work on Erika and Koga, just keep in mind that Erika's Pokemon can Stun Spore you back. Sabrina and Blaine are lost causes, due to their Pokemon (mostly) having higher Speed and a type advantage. Victreebel should have learned Razor Leaf by the time you get to Giovanni, because it ravages his entire team, minus the Nidos. Victreebel can actually beat Lorelei's Dewgong and Cloyster 1-on-1, thanks to Razor Leaf. Bruno is massacred. Agatha walls Victreebel's efforts to damage her Pokemon neutrally. All of Lance's Pokemon know Hyper Beam, which hammers Victreebel's weaker Defense.

I firmly believe Lapras should be Low Tier, or even Bottom Tier, due to how late you get it and how low its level is in comparison to the rest of your team when you get it. I also believe that Lickitung should be in Bottom, because of "meh" stats all across the board, as well as also being generally outclassed by other Normal-types who have better stats and joining time (Snorlax says hi). Lickitung is also very reliant on TMs to be useful.

Moderator

Also, unless you're playing on an emulator (you're almost admitting it [discussion of roms is a forum-wide rule]), Alakazam and Golem are sure has hell in-game. The point of the list is to show what Pokemon you can use while playing the game to get through the main game. Anyone with two cartridges can get Alakazam, Golem, Gengar, and Machamp pretty trivially.

Listen, while I appreciate your seriousness about the tier list, this is, in the end, a fun project for the community that doesn't require nearly half the bite that you put into your post. I do agree with a large part of your post, but there were certainly nicer ways to say that. Just chill out lol, we don't need the Fire Emblem brigade to swoop in and help us with our Pokemon tier list.

We shouldn't be including glitch mons because they're really not "in-game" and I don't think they add anything to a real comprehensive tier list.

However, I think trades should be allowed since they are still a part of in-game play. Whether that was the ruleset followed by a thread made 3 years ago is irrelevant imo.

Charmander - Mid Tier-Availability: It's a Starter. Evolves into Charmeleon at Lv 16 and Charizard at Lv 36. It's the only Fire type you have access to within practically the first half of the game.-Stats: Charmander line has decent Speed, but average stats otherwise.-Movepool: Movepool is limited but adequate. Slash and Flamethrower are adequate against most of the things you face, Fire Spin + 100 Base Spe can destroy anything slower - if you can wait that long. Charizard can learn Swords Dance and Earthquake, but it's not necessary.-Power: It takes a little bit of careful leveling, and it's best to have Charmeleon learn Flamethrower and then evolve, but otherwise Fire STAB rolls over most of the enemies in the game, and the low Defense of Tentacool makes Slash breeze through water routes en-route.-Type: Fire STAB is useful everywhere except on the water, and everything there hates Slash.-Match-ups:Brock: Ember does fairly well against Geodude and Onix's low Special. Neither of them actually have Rock attacks and Growl neuters their weak Tackles. This is actually easier than you'd expect, especially if you get a lucky Burn.Misty: Misty stomps you.Lt. Surge: Keep as a Charmeleon and Slash or Flamethrower away.Erika: Destroys her.Koga: Watch out for Weezing's Explosion, but Flamethrower handles the whole Gym pretty well, especially Venomoth.Sabrina: Slash destroys Kadabra and Alakazam, in Yellow her Venomoths get torched.Blaine: Slash overpowers their Fire and Normal attacks. Earthquake is overkill.Giovanni: Persian and Dugtrio are easily dispatched, his Rhydon are not.Lorelei: See Misty. Only Jynx is scared by Charizard, Lapras and Cloyster are too fat to be worried, and Slowbro destroys Charizard.Bruno: Useless against Onix, easily defeats Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee, watch out for Machamp's Rock Slide.Agatha: Their high Special and Normal Immunity make this a bad matchup, but Arbok and Golbat go down easily. This Matchup completely reverses if you run Earthquake.Lance: Dragonair is easily dispatched, but Gyarados, Dragonite, and especially Aerodactyl stop Charizard cold.Rival: Charizard can easily handle Pidgeot, Arcanine, Exeggutor, and to an extent Alakazam. Keep it away from Blastoise and Rhydon unless you want to spend 30 minutes watching Fire Spin KO them 8% HP at a time.Additional comments: Fire isn't so hot late game unless you give Charizard Earthquake, but it curbstomps most of the land routes because of all the Grass and Bug types.

Also, unless you're playing on an emulator (you're almost admitting it [discussion of roms is a forum-wide rule]), Alakazam and Golem are sure has hell in-game. The point of the list is to show what Pokemon you can use while playing the game to get through the main game. Anyone with two cartridges can get Alakazam, Golem, Gengar, and Machamp pretty trivially.

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I agree with this 100%. Hell, even on Eemulators, you could just find a way to hack the 4 pokemon onto your game to simulate the trade evolutions. Still, I agree with the glitches. I feel trades are viable for consideration on the evolution scale of things, just not trading for better pokemon that have been pre-trained.

Anyway, also is it ok if I reserve Tauros? I feel like he's high tier because he's fantastic (especially with RBY Hyper Beam mechanics), but kinda hard to obtain until late in the game.

-Availability: Right after you get Surf -Stats: 100 Spe and 120 Special are amazing the rest is ok-Movepool: Gets Stab Surf wich you can teach it instantly and can learn Blizzard/Ice Beam via TM, also has access to Wrap+Swords Dance if you want it.-Power: 70 Spe and 100 Special is very nice for a NFE and its level ranges from 5-40 so you can evolve it instantly if you can catch a Lvl 30+ one. It also gets a high powered Stab Move and is very fast as well as having great coverage if you teach it Ice Beam-Type: Water is great, Poison is not-Match-ups:Sabrina: Sabrina eats you alive don't switch it inBlaine: Clean sweepGiovanni: Same as aboveLorelei: Everything except for Jynx resists your attacks and Jynx got a high enough Special to survive a Surf and threaten to paralyse. Clearly a bad match-upBruno: The only thing that survives a Surf is Machamp who can't touch you outside of a NVE SubmissionAgatha: Arbok and Golbat go down easy but you could have some trouble with Gengar and Haunter due to their high Special so watch out hereLance: Without Ice Beam/Blizzard the only thing you can hurt is Aerodactyl otherwise only Gyarados stands in your way of a clean sweepRival: Can handle Pidgeot, Rhydon and Charizard as well as Exeggutor and Venusaur if you teach it Ice BeamAdditional comments: The main drawback is that there are so many other great water types, however in terms of raw power Tentacruel really stands out.